Google Product Development: Buying Company, People, Quicker Than Building Team

It seems Google wants to get into markets quick and the company is willing to pay for a company and its experienced people, rather than build a product and team from scratch, SVP of Product Development for Advertising Susan Wojcicki explained at the D: Dive Into Mobile event at the Ritz Carlton Hotel in San Francisco.

Why they were willing to pay around $6 billion for Groupon, as opposed to building their own seems to be answered. One has to ask if Google still has their employees spend the 20 percent of their work week developing new ideas? With a "buy people" outlook it does not seem likely, have the people just stopped on their own or is the expanding corporation taking a new direction?

Back in 1998 when Wojcicki rented her garage to Larry and Sergey did they just take too much time to develop Google? Did she think they should just go buy Alta Vista?

"It's hard to assemble a team and organize as quickly as you want in these situations," she said in an interview with the New York Times. "Finding the right people, interviewing them and hiring them takes time. Companies are willing to pay a premium to be in the market right now."

"You're buying people with expertise and learning about new markets," she said when referring to Google's purchase of adMob late last year. But noted the company would pursue internal as well as external opportunities to expand in to the local advertising market.

So if you are a start-up and the woman to your left comes through the door let your investors know you may be getting an acquisition offer. But remember Google likes to buy the people, so indenture your employees just to be prepared.

About the author

Frank Watson has been involved with the Web since it started. For the past five years, he headed SEM for FXCM -- at one time one of the top 25 spenders with AdWords. He has worked with most of the major analytics companies and pioneered the ability to tie online marketing with offline conversion.

He has now started his own marketing agency, Kangamurra Media. This new venture will keep him busy when he is not editing the Search Engine Watch forums, blogging at a number of authoritative sites, and developing some interesting online community sites.

He was one of the first 100 AdWords Professionals, a Yahoo and Overture Ambassador, and a member or mod of many of the industry forums. He is also on the Click Quality Council and has worked hard to diminish click fraud.